Genre Fiction
![Ron Rash - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B001IQX8XQ.jpg)
The Risen: A Novel
"The Risen is an important novel - and an intriguing one - from one of our master storytellers. In its pages, the past rises up, haunting and chiding, demanding answers of us all." -The News & Observer
New York Times bestselling author Ron Rash demonstrates his superb narrative skills in this suspenseful and evocative tale of two brothers whose lives are altered irrevocably by the events of one long-ago summer, one bewitching young woman-and the secrets that could destroy their lives.
While swimming in a secluded creek on a hot Sunday in 1969, sixteen-year-old Eugene and his older brother, Bill, meet the entrancing Ligeia. A sexy, free-spirited redhead from Daytona Beach banished to their small North Carolina town, Ligeia entrances the brothers, especially Eugene, who is drawn to her raw sensuality and rebellious attitude. Eugene begins to move farther and farther away from his brother, the cautious and dutiful Bill, and when Ligeia vanishes as suddenly as she appeared, the growing rift between the two brothers becomes immutable.
Decades later, the once close brothers now lead completely different lives. Bill is a gifted and successful surgeon, and a paragon of the community, while Eugene, the town reprobate, is a failed writer and determined alcoholic. When a shocking reminder of the past unexpectedly surfaces, Eugene is plunged back into that fateful summer, and the girl he cannot forget.
The deeper Eugene delves into his memories, the closer he comes to finding the truth. But can Eugene's recollections be trusted? And will the truth set him free and offer salvation . . . or destroy his damaged life and everyone he loves?
New York Times bestselling author Ron Rash demonstrates his superb narrative skills in this suspenseful and evocative tale of two brothers whose lives are altered irrevocably by the events of one long-ago summer, one bewitching young woman-and the secrets that could destroy their lives.
While swimming in a secluded creek on a hot Sunday in 1969, sixteen-year-old Eugene and his older brother, Bill, meet the entrancing Ligeia. A sexy, free-spirited redhead from Daytona Beach banished to their small North Carolina town, Ligeia entrances the brothers, especially Eugene, who is drawn to her raw sensuality and rebellious attitude. Eugene begins to move farther and farther away from his brother, the cautious and dutiful Bill, and when Ligeia vanishes as suddenly as she appeared, the growing rift between the two brothers becomes immutable.
Decades later, the once close brothers now lead completely different lives. Bill is a gifted and successful surgeon, and a paragon of the community, while Eugene, the town reprobate, is a failed writer and determined alcoholic. When a shocking reminder of the past unexpectedly surfaces, Eugene is plunged back into that fateful summer, and the girl he cannot forget.
The deeper Eugene delves into his memories, the closer he comes to finding the truth. But can Eugene's recollections be trusted? And will the truth set him free and offer salvation . . . or destroy his damaged life and everyone he loves?
Editorial Reviews
"Rash captures the gritty realities of modern Appalachia with mournful precision. . . . Beneath the surface, the novel contemplates more timeless questions about human frailty, the divinity of nature and the legacies of our native landscapes." - Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"So well-crafted that it reads like poetry. . . . Waterfall will leave the reader pondering the imponderables of life - and grateful, as Rash portrays, in being witness to life?s beauties, even while surrounded by hardship." - Jackson Clarion-Ledger
"A quick-paced, slender novel that captures the imperfections of how we all are, our weaknesses, our biases, our prejudices, and then, in times of stress and anxiety, if and how we emerge from those troubles with our morals intact." - Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Many have labeled [Rash] a Southern writer or an Appalachian writer, but those terms are deceptive. Rash?s characters are certainly connected to their landscape, but, as with any work that transcends, Rash brings the reader to the universal human concerns inside the particular details." - Electric Literature
Rash pulls the reader in with an element of suspense injected into his astute exploration of the clash of cultures, past and present. - Booklist
"The Risen is an important novel - and an intriguing one - from one of our master storytellers. In its pages, the past rises up, haunting and chiding, demanding answers of us all." - Raleigh News & Observer
"A beautiful piece of craftsmanship...I've long thought Ron Rash as good as any contemporary American novelist I've read. This lovely and disturbing book confirms that opinion." - Wall Street Journal
"Compelling... Rash, as always, has an absolutely sure sense of place... He is a riveting storyteller, ably heightening the tension between the story's past and present... A story about control, evil and the nature of power ― both to save and to kill." - Washington Post
"So well-crafted that it reads like poetry. . . . Waterfall will leave the reader pondering the imponderables of life - and grateful, as Rash portrays, in being witness to life?s beauties, even while surrounded by hardship." - Jackson Clarion-Ledger
"A quick-paced, slender novel that captures the imperfections of how we all are, our weaknesses, our biases, our prejudices, and then, in times of stress and anxiety, if and how we emerge from those troubles with our morals intact." - Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Many have labeled [Rash] a Southern writer or an Appalachian writer, but those terms are deceptive. Rash?s characters are certainly connected to their landscape, but, as with any work that transcends, Rash brings the reader to the universal human concerns inside the particular details." - Electric Literature
Rash pulls the reader in with an element of suspense injected into his astute exploration of the clash of cultures, past and present. - Booklist
"The Risen is an important novel - and an intriguing one - from one of our master storytellers. In its pages, the past rises up, haunting and chiding, demanding answers of us all." - Raleigh News & Observer
"A beautiful piece of craftsmanship...I've long thought Ron Rash as good as any contemporary American novelist I've read. This lovely and disturbing book confirms that opinion." - Wall Street Journal
"Compelling... Rash, as always, has an absolutely sure sense of place... He is a riveting storyteller, ably heightening the tension between the story's past and present... A story about control, evil and the nature of power ― both to save and to kill." - Washington Post
Readers Top Reviews
janet deutschS. R. E
I enjoyed the late-60s to resent-day connections. I enjoy his tales located in Appalachia.
CandiC.
Besides being a remarkable mystery, this novel is literary at its heart. But it's unpretentious literature; the best kind. Deeply felt and moving.
Claire Fullerton
This is, yet again, another gripping Ron Rash novel. I see that all of the reviews here outline the riveting story, which is what stays with me most, for upon reflection, the premise of The Risen is tight and simple. Two brothers, in a small North Carolina town, are swimming in a creek in the summer of 1969 and meet a seventeen year old outsider who impacts their lives. But Ron Rash gives us a thorough psychological treatise, through the character of younger brother Eugene, on the desperation behind falling in love for the first time and the complexities of younger brother syndrome during one's coming of age. Place is a character in this story, described in Rash's keen vernacular, and it is the unsolved past that pulls us through this story. The reader lives in two time frames as the story unfolds, which gives us the experience of cause and effect. On the one hand, The Risen floats on the wings of the fruits of summer, on the other its tension builds through the guilt of a broken man. The Risen is a page-turning mystery with a twist, written in such a way that you can feel the guilt that haunts the two main characters' involvement. It speaks of the repercussions of one false move that shadows lifetimes, and though the mystery may have been solved at the end, it suggests that nobody gets away with anything for long.
Bette Hurst
The Risen is slightly shorter than Ron Rash's previous novels, but this suits the power and movement of the work. Written in the past and present tense, the story moves around in time, thought and memory, then begins to accelerate as the plot's strands become horrifically clear. The working of memory and thought is definitely explored but not at the expense of the story. There are several stories within the story, the chief which is the relationship of two brothers under the thumb of a ruthlessly tyrannical grandfather. The second half of the story explores the personality of a reckless drug-addicted girl who enters their lives when she is sent to relatives in an attempt to curb her many problems. There is a murder mystery involving the three main characters which will undoubtedly hold readers in utter suspense...hold your breath suspense. The younger brother falls deeper and deeper into trouble, which will haunt him, as well as his brother, all their lives. There are two takes on the two brothers' relationships, through references to Look Homeward, Angel and through The Brothers Karamazov. If Serena perfectly caught the power of Macbeth in its own utterly original evocation, then The Risen does the same with the books with which Rash seems to be working here. The characterization is outstanding and the control of plot superb, as usual from the gifted Ron Rash...soon to be not only "an Appalachian Shakespeare" but also an Appalachian Dostoevsky. The question, How does he continue to do it? is once again relevant when one considers the scope and range of his writing and poetry. Astounding.
J. Grattan
Set in western, mountainous North Carolina in the late 1960s, this haunting novel explores the fragility of family, especially when a highly contentious element is introduced. In this case, the Matney brothers had their planned lives severely disrupted when the enticing, rebellious Ligeia suddenly appears in their lives, having been given up on by her parents in FL and sent to relatives in NC. The counterculture had not gotten to Sylva, NC in 1969 and the uninhibited behavior of Ligeia bowled over the brothers, especially the younger, Eugene. Using her wiles, Ligeia quickly has Eugene eating out of her hand, seemingly willing to do virtually anything for her, legal or not. The story is actually told from two time perspectives: the summer of Ligeia and the present, which finds the older brother Bill as an extremely successful neurosurgeon and Eugene a broken down alcoholic. As disheartening as the disappearance of Ligeia was to Eugene in 1969, new data has surfaced that sends Eugene racing through his fragmented memory about that summer and then confronting Bill. The author skillfully draws the reader and the brothers into the exhilaration of experiencing the charms of Ligeia but always leaves just below the surface the immense consequences possible if too much were to become known and extreme reactions by pertinent individuals result. It is a tale of growing up, caution, severeness, and sadness.
